Harry Potter and the Department of Mysteries
by Cat97Hermione
Summary: Harry's been recruited by the mysterious Unspeakables, but he's not the only one... he begins to prepare for the second war with the unusual preparation and training of the Department of Mysteries. Harry's dons a pyseudonym and learns to take on the Death Eaters his own way... watch out, Order of the Phoenix! Watch out, Hogwarts! Powerful!Harry. ON HOLD!
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter One**_

"If you refuse this offer, I will be forced to Obliviate you," the first man was saying. The second man gulped, and nodded.

"What do I get out of this? Or you? What do you get out of the arrangement?"

"You get training. Simple as that. You might get a few assignments before you're out of Hogwarts, depends on how fast you learn. I personally get nothing. I'm just the recruitment. My people, though, get another operative- another set of eyes, and a set in Hogwarts at that. They also get another fighter."

"You're sure that you won't all use me, like Dumbledore? Tell me nothing and expect me to be your weapon?"

"All operatives are treated the same, and I will not have you insinuating otherwise," the first man was now sounding a little cold.

"I apologise."

"Accepted. No, if you are going out into the field, you will be briefed thoroughly and we tend not to keep secrets from our operatives pertaining to our work. The secrecy charms we invoke make betrayal almost impossible, anyway." The second man nodded his approval.

"No one has given me this opportunity, nor was anyone willing to. You are telling the truth, so I… accept."

"Excellent, Mr. Potter. Now I take you to the Department."

"Department?" asked Harry, confused.

"Mr. Potter, you have just agreed to become an Unspeakable."

"WHAT? I just destroyed the Department weeks ago; I thought that you'd all be out for my blood, not recruiting me!" The man snorted.

"The Department gets destroyed quite regularly by our operatives alone; it is not a big deal. No, what you managed to do is both impress the recruiters- we have devices not dissimilar to muggle security cameras and the recruiters managed to watch the battle. The other thing you did is force Voldemort out of hiding. That's good because it makes it easier for us to act."

"You said Voldemort's name!"

"Tom Riddle is the only true name we use in the Department. Real names are too dangerous, so do not expect me to call you Mr. Potter again. Indeed, most operatives only know their partner's code name, and your true name especially would be dangerous in the Department. For now, you will be called up as Recruit or something similar. I am Operative Silver."

"Uh… okay… Operative Silver… sir…"

"Ha! That's a long name, recruit. We skip the 'operative' and 'sir' business. You just call me Silver. Once your training is up, we will be equal despite the incredible age difference." Harry looked up at Silver and saw the meaning behind his words. The man looked far more ancient than Dumbledore, and far more powerful, too. The lines and wrinkles were there and yet the weariness and other drawbacks Harry had come to expect from age were not there. It was mind boggling.

"Now, are you ready to go? Bring only your wand, we don't want to alert the Lemon Drop as to the act you are missing. I am under the impression that you have a guard?

"I do, but they have not seen me all summer. In actual fact it's because Uncle has locked me up in this room, but they all believe that it's because I'm locking myself away, grieving for Sirius."

"Are you?"

"Well, I was, but I've decided not to anymore. He wouldn't want me to mourn him any longer. If he was here, he'd tell me that I was wasting my time and to get out there and prank some people… or something less appropriate but I'll just leave it at that. Might as well honour his memory by pulling a massive prank on the old Lemon Drop! Nice name, by the way."

"That's good, and for the record, Recruit, I knew Black for a while and I reckon you're right. I can tell you're blaming yourself, though."

"Everyone keeps telling me that it's not, but they just can't see it! They're just trying to make me feel better, if they can. How is it _not _my fault," Harry felt his anger flare up.

"Easy, now, recruit. Now, that question? If it's your fault, that means you don't blame Bellatrix in the slightest. Nor Voldemort, you believe he's completely innocent. Dumbledore and Snape have perfectly clean records in your mind."

"NO! But- how does-"

"There, you just proved that you blame them. Personally if I were you I wouldn't be putting any blame on myself, but I've heard about your hero complex."

"You didn't just say that to make me feel good, did you?"

"No."

"I think I see your point… but it almost seems to help the pain, to blame myself. If I don't then I have to admit that Sirius was foolish, and I don't want to tarnish his memory." Harry looked at the floor, feeling his face heat up.

"Recruit. Look Up. Why did you go to the Department?"

"Because… I thought Sirius was in danger!"

"Was it foolish? Do you truly believe that it was foolish to want to rescue your godfather?"

"No…" Harry couldn't see where this was going.

"Good, because it's not. Now, why did Sirius go to the Department?"

"Because… because," Harry trailed off, before comprehension dawned on his face. "We went for the same reasons, and neither was foolish. The plan could have been executed better, but that's another matter. We lost because Dumbledore withheld information, Snape failed to teach, Bellatrix killed him, Voldemort initiated the plan, Malfoy lead the Death Eaters… and Sirius didn't take the duel seriously. I believe you, Silver, and I think I am at peace now," he finished softly. He didn't really understand why, but the ancient man's words and tone helped him understand more than anything. He did truly feel a lot better, and was willing to just remember the good times he had with his godfather, no matter how few he had of them.

"Good, are you ready to go now?"

"Yes," he said, more determined than ever.

"One last thing before we go, everyone in the Department has a partner, and a partner is relied on more than anyone else. There is always the leader and the back up in each pair and the pair is always in the group. We don't assign the leaders out of the pairs, but from watching, I believe it will be you. If all goes well, Operative Frog will have convinced your prospective partner to join us. Your situation is unique, as you are both Hogwarts students you will be obligated to reveal your true selves no matter what- most partners get the choice. And no, I will not tell you who it is until they have agreed. Got your wand?"

"Yep!"

"Let's go then!" and with that, Silver portkeyed the two of them straight through the wards at Privet Drive.

"What about the wards?" asked Harry as he was being helped to his feet.

"Lemon Drop won't notice, I taught him those wards when we worked together and I can bypass them- no, he was never an Unspeakable. They thought about recruiting him for the Research Department, but he became a little too greedy with his lust for power. Would have made a good field operative, too, if not for his personality."

"Huh. Lust for power; that is a brilliant understatement, Silver."

"It is, but I was unsure as to your… er… standing on this matter."

"He's a manipulative old coot."

"Fair enough. Ah, look, there's Lenta! He's the head of recruitment training, and his name is apt- he's brutal! We can't let you meet anyone just yet as you don't have your robes or any other gear, and it would make you quite recognisable. So, we'll have to do that first!"

"Okay… are you sure that Lenta won't kill me? He looks scary…"

"He's as likely to kill you as old hip-flask."

"Ah, okay."

"And now to your Unspeakable gear, if you will follow me." Silver turned and began to stride down the walkway of the Department of Mysteries. As Harry hurried to keep up, he began to ask the question he had been burning to since he had met Silver.

"Silver, why are you so willing to take me on and train me? As far as I know, you've barely seen what I can do. Why?"

"Recruit, we watch everyone. Whenever a person of-age enters the country to stay and work, not just for a holiday, we discreetly get their power levels. Once a person begins magical schooling, however, or comes for qualifications if they are home schooled, we do the same thing. We have the power levels of every magical citizen in the country in here, though we are not to look at them except for recruitment or major criminal cases, which we prefer to keep out of. That is our first test. Most fail. We watch for years, the people with the power level needed. We watch their temperament both in and out of trouble, how they deal with stress, their learning styles, where they do and don't perform and so on. You, recruit, perform at your best when you are in a tough situation, though with the right motivation you learn well enough as well- which is good as we don't plan on threatening your life every day to teach you message-spells. If the person passes the standards here, and that is even less people- we watch their actual magic. How they react to large amounts of it and so forth. If we still approve of the person, we wait until we need another pair trained up and ask them to join. In this stage, we take into account what sort of individual and pair we need, what skills they need and which person or people will fit this role. We also take age into account to a minor degree, for example we need people at Hogwarts so you were bumped up the admittedly short list of possible recruits. If we needed Unspeakables in Gringotts, I assure you that you would have had less chance, though it is most likely we still would have recruited you. Does that answer your question?"

"Er… yes, but I'm not powerful!"

"Recruit. Look. You're powerful, but you're blocking your magic! Not intentionally, I'm sure, but you are subconsciously frightened of it and you are repressing it. One of the few times you truly let most of your magic work, you fought off over 100 dementors at once, with one spell."

"I'm repressing it?"

"Yes."

"I didn't even know that was possible," Harry muttered before falling back into silence following the older man. In barely any time at all, Silver stopped and opened a door before ushering Harry inside.

"Right. This is it, we kit you up in Unspeakable gear. The DOM is completely separate from the Ministry of Magic, but the latter like to appear that we work together so they actually pay us to have HQ here. Meagre payment, but we get the majority of our funds elsewhere. This means that we don't get the sort of government issued stuff the aurors get. Our stuff is much better. Unfortunately the wages are terrible, but I reckon the gadgets more than make up for it."

"We get wages?"

"What did you expect, coal? Huh, that actually wouldn't be such a bad idea… anyway, yes. They're terrible because the Department needs the money to afford the gadgets, and an incredible wage is suspicious. One of the reasons we ask our operatives to get a second job, but you are different because you're still at school. Now! This cool gear I've been talking about! We have the standard Unspeakable robes; I'll get you one in a moment. They look nondescript, but they're actually quite clever. They have demiguise hair and chameleon skin worked into them, which can be activated on command to make you blend in with our surroundings. Not perfect, but better than not having it. You need to remember that no disguise is fool proof, and to be cautious at all times. Mostly spell-resistant for minor charms and hexes- if you wear them at Hogwarts you'd be quite safe from all but the 7th years at any rate, though they purposely teach you slowly there so that no one learns any real spells- so that's the reason for that. Wouldn't recommend using them as a second shield in battle, anyway, but they will throw off a tracking charm or two. The standard robe is grey, as you can see, but you can tap it and ask it to change colour if you wish. On most field missions, though, you leave it grey so that people recognise what you are. They have mild concealment charms on the hood so no one will recognise you- well, there are a few other charms on there to help with that, but I won't tell you what they are. You keep your hood up at all times. The designers were nice, so they added charms to keep them wrinkle-free and the temperature regulated; they're also impervious to water. So, that's the robes! For you, we'll have to get one slightly too big and shrink it down because I have a feeling that you will be growing quite a bit." Silver frowned and began to root through them.

"That one's too big," Harry pointed out helpfully as Silver picked out a robe that was far too big for him.

"No, no I don't think it is," he frowned, "you'll be gaining quite a bit of muscle and you're currently malnourished so your growth has been stunted. We are going to fix that as well, so this one is a good size. If my estimate is wrong, we can get you a new robe."

"Oh, okay," said Harry, disguising his happiness that they could reduce his 'midgetness' as Ron called it. He slipped the robe on and was impressed by how comfortable it was. Silver tapped it with his wand and Harry felt it shrink down to a good size.

"This is brilliant! So comfortable."

"That it is… try to change the colour." Harry tapped it with his wand and said 'Blue,' but nothing happened. Silver snickered.

"Sorry, recruit; it's really funny watching the newbies do that, though. We need to bond the robe to you, otherwise people could alter them, including the colour-change and having the charms altered by someone other than you out on the field is dangerous. So, we bond it to you and no one can wear it or alter it in any way apart from yourself."

"How do we do that?"

"Blood."

"That's Dark magic!"

"No it isn't, but we'll get into that at another time. For now, let's just say that it's the safest way of bonding the robes to you as it is impossible for others to undo unless you die."

"Okay," said Harry, embarrassed by his outburst.

"Not to worry, Harry, most have the same reaction as you. I think I did, but never mind. Anyway, prick your finger with this and let a few drops of your blood come into contact with the robes. Your finger will heal automatically, by the way."

"Sure," said Harry, before he took the offered knife and made a small slit along his finger. 3 drops of blood came out and landed on the robe before his skin healed over the slit and it looked as though nothing happened. The robe appeared unchanged.

"This time, imagine the exact colour you want it to be when you tap it, instead of saying the colour out loud. 'Blue' is too broad, anyway." Harry nodded, and concentrated on the reddish-gold of the Gryffindor couches. Once the colour was set in his mind, he tapped his cloak and to his astonishment, they appeared exactly the same- down to the texture! Silver let out a short bark of laughter.

"You were focusing on an object that was the colour that you want, not the colour which is why the texture came along. However, I must admit I am impressed, I've never seen the texture so convincing before. Huh. You might be able to disguise them as Hogwarts robes after all. No, that's for another time. The funniest time was when a recruit decided the mimic the colour of her bathroom tiles." Harry let out a snort.

"That would have been amusing," he said before discreetly tapping the robes and getting rid of the textured-look.

"Looks like you've got the colour change sorted! The chameleon/invisibility work together and the command phrase is 'no-see,' but it's simple enough that you can do it yourself later."

"Okay."

"Right. Next, we've got some dragonhide boots, same deal. Chameleon/invisibility feature, though there's no colour change but the black is quite nice. The temperature charms are there as well, and you'll need to bond them to you as well. The comfort surpasses most dragonhide boots as well! They're spell-resistant, too, and we added the impervious after an operative burned through them with a potion. Quite obviously a highly volatile potion as the dragonhide should have stopped that." Harry put the offered pair on after bonding them and was impressed. They felt as though they were part of his feet- that he wasn't wearing any shoes at all.

"Nice, see what you mean about comfort. Definitely will help not having to worry about tripping over my own shoes. Maybe Tonks should get some."

"Huh. Next we have the wand holster… One thing the aurors do get exceptional quality in these, so we use the same; invisible, can't be summoned, pretty much impervious to all magical attacks, so your wand can't be summoned when it's in their either, only you can remove it and your wand will draw with a flick or your wrist, though you might take some time to practice your draw as most people drop their wands the first time. Once you attach it to your wrist the charms will activate. You get two; all operatives have two wands, and one is recorded by the ministry; the other not as there are some spells we would prefer the Ministry never found out that Operatives could use- though they have given permission for us to use all spells, lethal and non-lethal if the situation demands for it. You'll get your second wand later." Harry gulped as he attached the second holster to his left wrist. He didn't particularly like the sound of learning 'lethal' spells, though he reminded himself of his levitation charm philosophy and Umbridge's idea of ministry-approved spells and his resolve strengthened again.

"I can see the battle in your head, and you are doing well, recruit."

"Thanks."

"Huh, that's why I'm not a trainer, I give praise too often. Anyway, out last gadget… or group of gadgets, more like."

"Group of gadgets?"

"Mmmm… see this little pendant? You can choose between it and the bracelet."

"Pendant or bracelet?" asked Harry sceptically. "Might choose the bracelet, thanks."

"How did I guess? Anyway, this is the bracelet. First, it's a portkey. Gets you through these wards, too. If you say 'HQ,' it will bring you to the entrance room for DOM Field operatives, but if you say 'help' it'll take you straight to the hospital. Er… I can see that you'd rather not go there… don't worry, you'll get used to it soon enough. You can only take a maximum of one passenger, though, and they have to be keyed into the wards so you'll only really use that feature if a team member has lost their portkey or is too injured to activate their own. Unfortunately, they'll only get you through these wards so you will have to escape from Hogwarts first if we ever call you here. Now, if you ask the bracelet to 'open' and direct some magic at it- either by tapping it with your wand or wandlessly which you will learn later, it opens up like this… and that falls out, yes. Tap it with our wand, please." Harry tapped the little cube the size of his fingernail and gasped before dropping it to the floor. It was expanding, rapidly.

"Yup," said Silver when it was done, "multi-compartmental trunk, though once it recognises you no one will recognise it as multi-compartmental besides yourself. Before you do that, though, I would ask you to open it. First compartment, please." Harry opened the lid.

"You've got your basic storage here. I can see that you recognise the time-turner, and you know the laws regarding them as well. You will learn when to use them, and hopefully it is not often. Cough-minor-cough diversionary tactics, you've got your little spheres here. They range it abilities when you smash them; from this little one which lets our smoke to obscure vision, to this one which lets out a random stream of stunners and the worst, this one which I suppose is equal to a muggle bomb and it's best to apparate away as soon as you drop it. Apart from the smoke, its best to only use them when there's no innocents in the way, but even then the smoke is questionable as it will obscure the vision of anyone not wearing an Unspeakable robe- though not anywhere near completely. So… you've got a few of them, and then the basic healing potions are there. Unfortunately it's a little hard to open a trunk in the middle of a battle but being in the first compartment makes it easier than it could be. Second compartment! Most operatives' least favourite compartment, those are all of the basic books you will need. You can add your own, of course, and you will be given more of them further along in your training. You'll need to read this one first; it's pretty much a handbook to being an operative in this Department. Most of the books in there aren't released to the public so if anyone else sees you reading them they will see the book they expect you to have. Research do a brilliant job of that, Worm is the best out of all of them, but that's not the point. So… next please! Right, that's your tent- magical by the way, a lot larger on the inside but definitely not luxurious. I doubt that you'll be going on many missions where it's necessary for a while but you have it all the same. Tents are generally used in observation missions where you need to watch a place for days on end. They're muggle-repelling and invisible with layers of protective wards on them, ranging to keep out insects to Dark Marks- though the results of a breach vary enormously. As this is the 'camping' compartment, we've got ropes, grapples, and the like. There are spells you can use, and conjuring, but if you can do it the muggle way it's a lot safer. Eh. Now, there's your portable equipment- potions kit and workbench. Chair as well because we're nice people."

"I like this compartment."

"For now. Next one please." Harry opened the lid to the final compartment and gasped.

"Yes, you will be learning to fight with weapons. All will resize to fit you better when you pick them up. You've got your normal sword, katana and throwing knives there, and they can be summoned to you by thought later- not now. The sheaths have the same charms as the wand holsters. Normal sword goes on your back, with the katana and the throwing knives on your legs and hips. You should wear them at all times once you can wield them, but keep spares of each in here. Now we close the trunk… bond it… shrink it and it goes in the bracelet! Only you can remove that now."

"That's brilliant!"

"Quite. Now, we've seen you in action, but we need to test your magic to see what you might need extra- or less- training in depending on where your magic's strengths lie and any other abilities you might have. Once we know that, you'll get your name and hopefully meet your partner, if she agreed. Ready?" Harry swallowed before nodding.

"Yes, Silver."

"Got all your gear on? You'll wear that for life, now, unless you're ousted from the Unspeakables. When you feel incapable due to age or permanent injury or whatever, you'll be removed from most field work but there are other positions in the Department. You will come to enjoy it, though, and won't want to leave. If you do, you surrender the gadgets and are obliviated. Unfortunately because of the amount that needs to be obliviated, it tends to leave people a little disoriented for the rest of their life. So, on that happy note, let's go!" Harry shuddered inwardly and followed the slightly crazy man out the door and into the next room.

"Recruit, this is Mere, she's the head healer," Harry shuddered again, "and she's going to do the scan. It's quite extensive what it works out, and it deals with both magical and physical strengths and physical weaknesses so be prepared." Harry nodded nervously- the word 'healer' made him more nervous than 'Voldemort' and most people close to him knew it.

"Hello Recruit, I'll do the spell now, shall I?" Harry just nodded. Mere waved her wand and muttered the incantation softly- no doubt that even the operatives were forbidden from learning the spell. Mere whistled.

"You're going to need a lot of potions to fix this damage… or we could just give you one completely disgusting potion and leave it at that but most would prefer the first option even if taking potions is not their cup of tea. You're severely malnourished, you've got bones that haven't healed properly, your muscles are weak from the under-nourishment, as are your bones and your growth has been badly stunted by it. That makes 6 potions, though you only have to take each one once and you could do it here. Considering you go to Hogwarts, you have more tolerance for the bad-tasting potions as Grease doesn't bother to make them taste nice when he brews for your hospital wing, but the choice is up to you- all 6 of them taste alright separately." Harry snickered at Snape's codename in the Department before returning his attention to the healer.

"Magically, your strengths lie towards power more than casting speed, though you could still get your casting speed up there it won't be as fast as those more inclined towards it in the Department. You will be faster than most outside of it, though. Your strengths also lie in Offensive and Defensive magic as well as Healing magic, surprisingly enough. Your weakness is transfiguration and charms are middle ground. Wandless and wordless casting will come naturally to you because of your power level, more so than any other in the department and I think that will become your specialty along with power in terms of magic. As you have no doubt been told, you are suppressing your own magic, but that is just constantly strengthening it and once you are at peace with it you will be able to achieve a lot. You have an animagus form, as well. Unfortunately, I do not know what it is. In terms of abilities, you are a Parselmouth, as you know, you've also got some metamorph talent, though I'm not quite sure how strong it is, and it's definitely weaker than Meadow's talent. Finally, you've got mage sight, but it's blocked as it normally is as it's dangerous for small children to have. Explains why you need glasses, though. So, that's that! You'll need another potion to unblock the mage sight, but it's tasteless." Harry nodded.

"How bad are you talking with the one-potion option?"

"You will think that Skele-Gro is as nice as pumpkin juice." Harry gulped.

"I'll take the other ones, thanks, Mere." She nodded and bustled over to the potions cabinet. Harry watched her, feeling as though she might be less protective than Madam Pomfrey and was cheered up by the thought until he realised that she had to earn her name somehow- Mere- similar to the French word for mother. Harry gulped.

"Here you are, Recruit, I'm going to put up a silencing charm around you as Silver and I need to discuss your name. No operative gets to choose it, sorry, it's between the recruiter and the healer. Drink that one last, it will release your mage sight and I daresay you're in for a little bit of a shock when you do drink it. This ward is quite bright. Ah, sunglasses. If it's too bright, put these on for a while. Mere nodded and stepped back before placing the silencing charms.

"He is going to need a strong name."

"I agree, his magic is incredible, and I daresay his personality agrees from the look on your face."

"He can be really calm under fire- that's where he performs at his best, for merlins sake! When someone insults a friend, though, he flares up worse than Fire- both in Team one and actual fire."

"That's a strong personality… so a protector… fits in with his magic, but the name can't correlate to fire directly. I think he needs a magical creature. I would say Basilisk or something, but he's not really that type."

"No, he only flares up when someone threatens or insults someone close to him… and I believe that no matter who his partner turns out to be, his protection will spread to them. He's a leader, too- he will no doubt be the leader of his pair, and he has the ability to give others the strength to do things they normally wouldn't and steps up continuously to take control of dangerous situations. People around him can't seem to stop themselves from looking to him for leadership. You're right, though, he needs a magical creature."

"He plays Quidditch, doesn't he?"

"Yes."

"Mmmm, I can tell by some of his injuries- quite nasty, but they don't seem to faze him if the way they've healed has anything to say."

"He does survive things that he shouldn't. If two could hold the same name, I'd call him Phoenix!"

"Sounds like I'll be seeing a lot of him, then… I'll try not to mother him too much then."

"You can't help but mother people, Mere, that's how you got your name."

"True… but back to the recruit. Don't want to relate him to a snake… that ability was a dead giveaway, Silver… oh, the thing I neglected to tell him is that the scar so wonderfully concealed is Dark magic- and I know the Departments stance on that classification, but that's the only way to describe it. It seems to be using his magic to feed something else, and I have a bad idea what… or who. I think with Strawberry's help I would be able to heal it, though."

"Urgh. That's not good, we need to do that soon, but perhaps obliviate Strawberry afterwards… and you…"

"That's different in the Department, but I agree it's necessary. Back to the name!"

"I wish we could use Phoenix, though… Lion?"

"No, not Lion; actually, I was thinking of something that could fly… like falcon."

"NO."

"Oh. Griffin?"

"Griffin… pretty good, I like it. Should we tell him?"

"No. Not yet, he's currently drinking the potion to release his mage sight and it is pretty much going to blind him for the next 5 minutes."

"So we wait."

"Yes."

"Huh."

"Team 3 is going to be a nightmare," complained the Healer after a few minutes.

"Mere? What do you mean?"

"You are putting him in Team 3, right?"

"That's the only team that needs a new pair."

"Well, You've got Flight in the team, who, I remind you, plays for the _Holyhead Harpies, _Griffin who will probably play Pro Quidditch as his secondary job soon enough, and I heard from Strawberry that the other recruit plays good Quidditch as well. Plus you've got Shadow in the team, who could give the other recruit a run for her money, and she's good enough to play as well! That team should be re-named the Quidditch team."

"What's wrong with Quidditch?"

"It's _dangerous- _it's- it's- they're already risking their lives on the field, and they have to go and find another field to risk their lives on- _for fun!_"

"Yeah, well, Quidditch is fun!"

"I swear, you Quidditch people. At least Griffin has good healing magic which is more than I can say about the rest of them in that team," Mere huffed, "oh, look, he's getting his vision back."

"Recruit, we've got your name."

"Urgh, who turned on the lights?"

"It's your mage-sight, recruit. Takes some getting used to, but the sunglasses will help if it's too bright for now." Mere slipped straight back into her job.

"Thanks," Harry grumbled, before he brightened. "You mentioned a name? _Recruit_ is a pretty bad one, if you ask me."

"I agree, I agree… _Griffin. _Welcome to the Field Operatives Division of the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries, Griffin!"

"Griffin? Huh, pretty good. I like it!"

"Thank you for that assessment of my naming skills," sniffed Mere.

"Suits your personality, Griffin does."

"Thanks?"

"No problem! Now we can wait for your eyesight to come back, or we can go meat the other Operatives now if you like."

"Urgh, any way I can just dim it for now?"

"That means you're getting used to it if you can consider that," said Mere, "you have to focus on _not_ seeing the magic. The sight will still be there, but barely noticeable. When you get more skilled you will learn more control; but for now, that'll do." Harry tried it and to his relief all the coloured lights that were magic dimmed to an almost unnoticeable level.

"Alright let's go meet the Operatives!"

"Silver, they're all with their teams now; except team 3, obviously."

"Thanks Mere! Let's go, Griffin." As they made their way towards the team rooms, Silver began to explain the odd naming system.

"As you already know, each person has both a codename and a partner. Each partner forms a pair within the teams and there are two pairs to a team. To make up for the rather bland team names, you know, team one, team two etcetera, someone came up with the bright idea to add the name of each partner together, leader first to come up with pair names. That means that, say, Ink and Bunny in team 6 are pair Inkbunny."

"Brilliant," chocked Harry, "Inkbunny; wonderful name."

"Hah, you wait until you hear the rest of the pairs. I'll tell you the pair names before we go into each of the team rooms. Everyone's pretty friendly around here, we have to be, so don't worry. Almost at Team One's room, which are pairs Firepaws and Meadowmarsh."

"Firepaws and Meadowmarsh? They're all weird, aren't they?" Harry groaned.

"Not all of them- some sound sensible and others are ridiculous! We don't think about pair names when we come up with them, so we do get some strange ones."

"Brilliant. Mine will have Griffin in it, bound to be weird."

"Also, each pair has a leader, stated in their name, but each team has a leader as well- the most experienced out of the two pairs, so you won't have to worry about that yet."

"Okay, good."

"Ready to meet team one?"

"Ready as I'll ever be!"

"Cheer up, already; you're only meeting a few people."

"Right."

"Team One! Griffin here is new; he'll be joining Team 3- most likely as a pair leader, though of course we leave that up to the pairs." Team one chuckled.

"Hey, Griffin, I'm Fire, and the Leader of my team," said the man closest to the doorway. Harry groaned internally. It was impossible to physically describe any of the Unspeakables after only one glance; it was going to take forever to learn everyone's name.

"Don't worry, Griffin," Fire added, seeing his discomfort, "you'll get used to noticing the slight differences and everyone has different voice tones and mannerisms. You catch on faster than you'd believe."

"Thanks."

"No prob."

"Hey, stop hogging his attention, Fire! Griffin, I'm Paws, Fire's back up."

"Nice to meet you... Paws."

"I know it's a girlish name, but it's after my animagus form- seriously!"

"Sure… and it's not girlish."

"Don't mind him; he's been thinking that for years. Hey Griffin, I'm Meadow, leader of my pair," said the woman nearest him.

"Yeah, and I'm Marsh, her back up, nice to meet you!"

"Er… Hi."

"Griffin, you need to work on your voice disguising, the Order of the Chicken will recognise it quickly… though I'm the only member."

"Ah, thanks Meadow, you might want to take your own advice, though!"

"Oops. Sorry, Griffin, I was just surprised that you were here."

"Huh. Okay." Harry shook his head as they left. _Can't believe Tonks is an Unspeakable._

"Griffin, I will trust you to use discretion with this information."

"Huh? Oh, I will," he said distractedly.

"Good. Now, Team Two… we have Blackthorn and Twistfeather pairs."

"Huh… Blackthorn isn't too bad… can't really say the same about Twistfeather, though," he mused. Introductions went similarly in there, though there was no one to recognise- nor anyone to recognise him.

"Okay, Griffin, you'll be joining Team 3, so there's only one pair in here at the moment- Shadowflight."

"Hey, that's pretty good, too."

"Oi! Team 3!"

"Silver."

"Hey, Silver!"

"Huh. You guys need another pair in this team, well, this is Griffin and he'll be joining you… once his training is complete. We have a target for his partner, but we're still unsure if we were accepted or not."

"Brilliant, it'll be good to have a full team again. Hi Griffin, I'm Shadow… leader of the team and my pair, but we like to discuss options in this team and only really acknowledge leaders when we need quick decisions."

"Sounds good to me."

"Hey, Griffin, I'm Flight, obviously Shadow's backup. As long as you enjoy Quidditch, you'll fit right in, welcome to team 3! We won't discriminate if you don't like Quidditch, but… you do, don't you?"

"Love it, don't worry, Flight, and your name suits you if you're a Quidditch person!"

"Holyhead Harpies."

"Yup, you're a Quidditch person," said Harry faintly. "Does it count if I've talked to and… well, been given tips by Krum?"

"Uh…yeah, you pass the Quidditch test," she said equally as faintly.

"Mere was right, this team is going to drive me crazy with Quidditch… and I like it!" Flight giggled and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Very mature, Flight, I can see why you're in here," Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Right, well we've got to keep going with the introductions, so you guys will have to have all of your fanatical Quidditch conversations later, alright?"

"Fine," said Flight, pretending to sulk. Harry cracked a grin for the first time since the Ministry debacle. He was going to enjoy working with Flight. They made their way around the teams, meeting pairs Darknight, Skyrider, Dragonskin, Lasersight, Windstorm, and, of course, Inkbunny. Then they met the healers; apart from Mere, there was Strawberry, Lemon and Trainee Healer Pie, the Tactical Operative Raven and Strategist Slither. Harry met the head of the Field Division, Phoenix and the Recruit Training pair; Lentaeagle. The two of them were scary, Eagle especially as she seemed to see and hear everything around her. When they were done, they met Frog, the back-up Recruitment Operative.

"Silver! Target W agreed, she's in the hospital getting her medical check. Should be ready in 10 and then we can meet and discuss training options."

"Thank you, Frog, you have done well. I was successful, also, as you can see- this is Griffin."

"Ah, nice to meet you, Griffin," he said distractedly, "well, I've got to go, Strawberry is complaining about Quidditch injuries and the like. Honestly, you'd think she'd never seen them before!"

"Ha, Mere was saying that Strawberry was complaining about her injuries while Griffin was getting his medical, and we've met everyone since!"

"Ah, well, you know that Strawberry takes an hour to do what would take Mere a minute. They're not even that bad, Mere was talking and it seems Griffin here had worse. Mere's helping now, so she'll be done any second. Well, that's my update!"

"Thank you, Frog, I'll say it again- you've done well. Ah, and it seems that you've caught on to the reason why Mere is head healer and Strawberry second- though she and Lemon really should swap positions," said Silver thoughtfully.

"I agree, sir, Lemon is much faster than Strawberry, but she is more thorough. Save Lemon for the emergency healing and Strawberry for the more delicate things… 'Couse, Mere outshines both of them."

"Indeed… however, now is not the time to be discussing out healer's capabilities. They are all excellent at their job, and Strawberry's slow work is still quicker than most. Now, though, you have a recruit to name… and Strawberry still wants revenge for her name, so you will have to be careful what you agree to. She will want a hair colour, and as long as it is not too outrageous, I think it best too agree, Frog. Now go!"

"Yes, Silver, Sorry, I got a little carried away." Frog rushed off and Silver sighed.

"Frog is like a school student still, despite his age and is quite excitable as well as easily distracted and feather-brained. However, when he has a task to do, he completes it well. He is also very loyal- if you give him a chance, he will stick by you for a long time. Now, your partner has agreed to join us. I am sure you will recognise her- you must, as it is unfortunately imperative that you know each other because you are our Hogwarts spies. I think you will work well together. Now, we have a few options, but we need well-trained Unspeakables in the school as fast as possible. You will discuss this with your partner, but I am briefing you on your options now. The first is that you get here every day and we work as hard as we can, fitting in as much as we can. The second is that you still come here every day, but you would enter into a time compression so that you get more of it each day. Another option is to come in, and enter an extremely strong time compression, where you will essentially get all of you training in one day. You could do a modified version of it over two days if you wanted to. Otherwise, we could use the time turners to do days multiple times in a row. The first is unadvisable as you would be nowhere near strong enough when you got to Hogwarts, but it is still an option. The second is not my favourite, but it is still quite acceptable as you would have trained enough by the time you get to Hogwarts. The third option is my favourite, as it gives you the maximum about of time to get to work with your team once you have the drawback, but many people are frightened of such a large time compression as it feels like years in there, though it is only a day, and people get… homesick. The modified version, though not as advisable, makes it easier for people to bear as each compression is shorter. The last one is _extremely _unadvisable and is only there for in case you find all four other options are bad for you. Talk with your partner before you decide, and now we can go!" Harry nodded and began to follow Silver down the hall again, thinking over his options. He wanted to be well trained before Hogwarts and had no problem with time compression, striking options one and five from his personal list, and he hoped his new partner agreed. There was something urging him to take option 3, but he was worried about his partner's reaction to the homesickness part- he had no problem with it, but he had no one that really would notice his absence, as his Aunt and Uncle didn't care as long as they didn't see him. When they reached the hospital wing, Harry saw Frog walking out with a small girl in Unspeakable robes walking proudly, but still betraying her nerves ever so slightly. Harry couldn't blame her; he was feeling the nerves as well.

"I've briefed her on the options, Silver, and the recommendations as well. Flame is ready."

"Thank you, Frog, you've done well. You can go back to the office now."

"Will do, Silver," he said cheerfully.

"Flame, is it?" The girl nodded. "Welcome. Griffin, this is Flame, Flame this is Griffin and the two of you are going to be partners and our Hogwarts infiltrators and spies. Follow, please." The two of them nodded and flowed him into the nearest secure room. Harry was trying to guess the girl's age by her height, but his recent- massive- growth spurt thanks to the potions from Mere was making it difficult to judge. Once Silver had locked the door, he turned to them.

"I would ask the two of you to lower your hoods, Flame, did Frog explain the necessity of this?"

"Yes, he did, Silver," she said, and Harry was certain he recognised her voice. He lowered the hood of his robe and the same time as her.

"Harry?"

"Ginny?"

"Wow, I never thought that you would be Griffin," she said softly.

"Thanks, glad you have all that confidence in me," said Harry sarcastically, "and it's good to see you to."

"Oh, sorry, I'm glad you're my partner, I'm just shocked, and I thought you trusted Dumbledore too much."

"I thought you did too."

"The rest of the family does, though I'm not sure how much. Think you need to be weary around Ronald, though."

"Really? That's really frustrating! I thought he was my best mate for five years, and he was my first friend too. You think it was a set-up, fake?"

"I do, and I'm really sorry Harry, but I think it was." Harry sighed.

"To be honest, I don't think we should trust anyone until they've proven their loyalty, and that may take a while."

"I agree."

"Still, now we need to discuss our training options."

"I crossed out options one and five."

"So did I!"

"I think that we should go for option 3, actually, though it will be weird to be away from my parents for so long," said Ginny.

"I agree, option 3, besides it's easier for me if I don't have to get away every day what with the Dursleys and the guard. Plus, I'd like to finish training sooner rather than later if it means we can defend ourselves better and get more time to practice our teamwork with Shadowflight."

"Shadowflight?"

"Ah, the other pair in Team 3. So, are we agreed?"

"Yes."

"Good," said Silver happily, "I was hoping the two of you could work that out- and especially pick that option, so let's go! Flame, have you got all of your equipment, or just the robes?"

"Frog got everything while Strawberry was fussing over me." Harry let out a snort.

"You should have heard Frog complaining to Silver about Strawberry's healing speed," he said quietly. Ginny snorted. Silver cleared his throat.

"Okay you two, I know that this may seem quite rushed, but I would like to put you both into the time compression today."

"Today? Are you sure that we're ready for that?"

"Yes. If we told you to come back another day, you would still only bring your wand and the Unspeakable gear that you've got with you now, you can't really be more prepared. Besides, at the moment you're already here which makes that aspect slightly easier, once you're done you should be able to make portkeys and apparate, though you do have the bracelet and pendant portkeys if you need them. Uh… both Lenta and Eagle will go in with you, and how long you're in there depends on how long your training takes. The harder you work the less time you will be in there for on both sides of the time compression, we have no way of knowing for sure how long you take, but if it is taking too long we'll send an Operative to both your homes to make them think that you're both staying with a friend for the night or something similar. Are you good to go now?"

"I'm feeling woefully unprepared despite your assurances, but okay."

"If Har- Griffin is good to go, then I can do this as well," agreed Ginny.

"Good. Now, at the moment, you are pair Griffinflame as Griffin is the leader, but if either Lenta or Eagle believe that you would do better to swap roles, you will do that. Have fun in time compression, think we'll send Lemon- no, Mere in with you as well. You've got 10 minutes! Let's go there now." Harry and Ginny exchanged a nervous glance before they stood and followed Silver out the door. Neither really knew what was happening as they were both still in shock from having Unspeakables come and speak to them in the middle of the night. They were fast approaching a small, almost completely unnoticeable door near the end of the corridor, and both barely took any notice of it until, smiling, Silver held it open for them. Harry barely contained a gasp. Inside- if you could call it that- was incredible. It had a wide meadow, stretching out for a while before it dipped downwards towards a large lake. Surrounding it on other sides were mountain ranges and a large forest, both looking extremely foreboding. The 'sky' was still dark but the sun was slowly rising behind the mountains and it was all Harry could do to remember that it was an enchantment even with his (still severely dimmed) mage sight. At the edge of the forest there was a small hut which, they were told, contained a bedroom for each of them, bathroom and kitchen as well as a library and study for minor spell practice. The other side of the room had a building which Silver informed them held a gymnasium, duelling room and the medical room as well as a few extra surprises for if they were lucky. Harry shivered at the tone in his voice. Finally, they heard someone standing in the doorway and Harry turned to see the heavily-scarred Lenta and Eagle standing behind him.

"Good, you're here. Well, Silver, you've done your job, the two of us can activate the time compression. Adiós!" said Lenta. Eagle smirked as Silver shut the door behind him and she spun around quickly and shot stunners at the pair of them. Harry barely managed to jump out of the way in time, but Ginny was not so lucky. She landed flat on her back. Harry tried to draw his wand from the new holster on his wrist. Unfortunately, he had little practice of that, and it flew out and landed on the ground, out of his reach for the time being. Eagle wasn't done, though- there was no way the trainer was going to let him near his wand, and she began to throw more and more advanced hexes and curses at him. He managed to continue to dodge for just over a minute when he began to feel exhausted and was hit by the stunner. The next thing he knew, Harry was sitting on a park bench next to Ginny with the two trainers standing over them, smirking.

"Se despierta! They awake!" smirked Lenta.

"That was pitiful. I had thought old Hip-Flask would have honed your reactions a little more. What is it he says? Oh yeah, Constant Vigilance! He may not be in the Department, but he's got the right idea. Griffin, you need to work on drawing, and both of you reacted terribly to the first attack. Flame, you were worse, but not by much; Griffin barely made it. We have a lot of work to do," said Eagle. Harry and Ginny gulped. She meant business.

"Suficiente, Eagle, suficiente. Now, we need to know the magical results from your medical. Mere is not allowed to say; patient-healer confidentiality or something like that. However, we need to know if we are going to train you both properly."

"Flame, you first," said Eagle. Ginny swallowed.

"My strongest magics are transfiguration and charms, and my weakest being healing and offensive magic. My strength is my casting speed, and I do have an animagus form, though I don't know what it is yet. Magical gifts are partial mage-sight, so I can only see the really bright magics like wards, and not spells in action. I am an empath, and am also a partial seer," she said shyly.

"You will learn to say that with pride, Flame," growled Eagle, "Griffin, your next." Harry barely contained his smile when he heard that Ginny was similar to him- same amount of gifts etcetera, so he didn't feel too bad saying his.

"My strongest magics are Offensive, Defensive and Healing magics, and my weakest magic is transfiguration, strangely enough," Ginny grinned at that. "Yes, I have an animagus form as well. My strengths are wandless and wordless casting," Ginny gasped, "and my skills are mage-sight, partial metamorph- though we don't know how much 'partial' is, and parseltongue."

"Bueno, it seems that your skills will complement you as you are both strongest in the magic that the other is weakest. That is what we hope for in pairs, though it is unfortunately rare. Even your strengths back each other up as one is strong, the other fast. Wandless is excellent as well. From your skills, I can say that Griffin is better off as leader. The stronger mage-sight makes it safer for him to enter places first, look for traps, while empath and partial seer is used to look for danger. Parseltongue is useful as snakes are small and can spy easily. You both have animagus form, so if they are not to obscure can be used to scout and partial metamorph is good if you are ever recognised out of Unspeakable robes." Harry and Ginny shot each other a look at the 'recognition' part of the speech. Harry decided then and there that he liked that gift.

"Now, physical," said Eagle. Harry gulped.

"Griffin, I can feel your nerves. You first."

"Urgh. Well, you see- my relatives don't exactly like me very much. I'm severely malnourished, my muscles and bones are weak from it as well, and I have ended up suppressing my own magic because of their treatment. Growth's been stunted, too. Already taken the potions, though, so in about a week I should be back to how I should be." to her credit, Eagle just nodded- Ginny was visibly angry, though.

"Flame, you next."

"Nothing like Griffin! Muscles are a little weak from not having proper exercise, but that's it."

"You've got the opposite problem, Flame, from all the chores my relatives made me do, once the potions kick in I'm going to end up rather toned, according to Mere."

"I still remember those bars my family talked about, can I come over and help punish the relatives once we get out of here?"

"Mierda! You two know the real names?"

"We had no choice, Lenta, we are going to be the Hogwarts operatives, and Silver was insistent that we know who the other is."

"I see. Be careful with the information, and do not let what happens outside of the Unspeakable robes influence you," growled Eagle, and the pair of them nodded.

"Good. We will work out a schedule. We won't begin proper physical training until Griffin's potions have done their work, but a run to the lake and back should be fine for now. If you walk, you will run further." Harry saw the glint in Eagle's eyes and decided not to test her. Ginny, however, was used to pushing the limits.

"How far is that?" she asked sweetly.

"6 miles."

"WHAT!"

"Go, or you will run it twice," she said dangerously, and Harry knew that was his cue to start running.

Harry prided himself on being fit, more so than most people at Hogwarts. When Ginny collapsed at 2 miles, however, he was sure he was close to spent, and they hadn't even reached the lake yet, let alone made it back! A mile later, Harry was able to collapse at the shore of the lake. Hoping it was fresh water, as Eagle had his wand, he tentatively drank a little. To his relief, it was fine. He managed to splash it on his face and drink a little before he decided that he was tempting fate a little too much and pushed himself upright. He only made it another one and a half miles, though, before he collapsed again, breathing heavily and hoping he wouldn't have to get up anytime soon.

His luck was out. Only 5 minutes after his collapse, he saw Lenta and Eagle coming towards him at a rapid pace. Groaning, he stood up slowly, feeling his legs trembling like never before. He couldn't remember feeling so weak from exercise before. He shivered and began to move his legs, wishing that he hadn't agreed to training- not that he would ever admit it. Within another 5 minutes, they had reached him. Lenta was to stay with him while Eagle went to 'convince' Ginny to finish her run.

"Griffin, you'll be running this with ease soon, but only if you push yourself beyond this," growled Lenta, "you need to work hard to get the results! Without results you are vulnerable to attack, to Death Eaters, to Voldemort and to death itself. Get going! You've only got 2 miles left." Harry barely contained his groan, the 2 miles was ages away! At the 1.5 miles to go mark, Harry felt something strange. It was as if his energy source had changed, but he definitely wasn't using his magic. It was weird; but he no longer felt as tired, and was able to finish the 6 miles before he collapsed again at the hut.

"That was a good start, _Novato_ Griffin. You will never have the bulk of someone that possesses physical brute strength, but you will have endurance to rival some of the best if you work because you have both the determination and the body type to do it." Harry just nodded, not trusting himself to speak for worry of bringing up his last meal- which now he came to think of it was 2 days ago, not counting the potions. Lenta seemed to understand his thought pattern, though.

"You need to rest a little before you eat, Griffin, or you will make yourself sick. After today, you and Flame will cook all of your own meals as well, though of course you are welcome to work together for that- it is expected, to be frank. However, today, I shall make the sandwiches." Harry nodded again, forcing the bile in his throat to retreat. Soon, Ginny and Eagle arrived and Ginny looked as bad as Harry felt, with a slight greenish hue to her face.

"Next time the pair of you will do better on that run, and speaking of next time, it will be at 5am tomorrow. You will meet us here. Now I will leave the two of you to recover or whatever while I go and help Lenta with the _only _meal I will be cooking during your training here. Once Eagle had left, Ginny plucked up the courage to speak.

"I- I can't cook Harry, Mum never let the rest of us in the kitchen to cook proper meals!"

"You forget who your partner is, Flame, I am perfectly capable of cooking all meals and will happily teach you as long as you don't tease."

"No way, I know where those skills come from, I'm not telling, or teasing. Besides, it's not like I can tell anyone outside of the Department! No one in here apart from Silver and I know who you truly are, either."

"Uh, no, Meadow from Team one recognised my voice." Ginny looked alarmed.

"Is that safe? Will Meadow tell anyone, or…"

"Flame, calm down. Meadow won't tell anyone, and even if she wanted to I'm sure that there's some Oath or other in place that stops her. Besides," he smirked, "I recognised her voice!"

"Oh, good, that gives you a little leverage. Who?"

"No way, not telling even if you are my partner! Now, how about I tell you something about our future team, Team 3 seeing as you didn't get to pay a visit. Did Frog explain the pair-names?"

"Yeah, he did."

"Well, our lead pair is the Shadowflight pair. Shadow apparently could give you a run for your money on a broom- according to Silver, and Flight just so happens to play for the Holyhead Harpies."

"WHAT?"

"We're on a Quidditch-mad team," said Harry happily.

"Brilliant… Flight's going to be my idol, I can tell."

"Hey, you know that she put herself in danger by giving us that information… there's not that many people in the team, after all."

"Good point."

"Now let's get up, I'm sure they don't want us laying around all day. Eagle especially, she's scary!"

"Too true, let's go!" The pair of them got up slowly and made their way towards the hut with even less haste. When they got inside, they saw a small kitchen taking up half of the room and a table meant for four people taking up the rest. There were five doors, each with a small plaque on it. There was '_Lenta_,' '_Eagle_,' '_Pair_,' '_Bathroom_,' and _'Library/Study_.' When Lenta saw their looks, he said;

"The hut has not changed for a while- not since pairs were one gender. There is no purpose to separating them now. Pairs like yours are still uncommon, we need you to work together as best as you can as well; so that room contains only two bunks- nothing else." Harry and Ginny shared a nervous look before nodding, though Harry was sure he heard her mutter;

"Thank goodness Mum's not allowed to know anything about the Department, she'd flip at this!" and he gulped.

"Flame- she would have flipped long before this," he said quietly. Ginny turned to face him and realised what he meant.

"She would've Griffin, you're right," she shuddered.

"Griffinflame! You see the studio, the Library and Study room, you will spend a lot of time in there when we are not around. The Library is big, but all of the information in there is important," he said quietly.

"Too right," came Eagle's voice, "I expect you both to learn to appreciate gaining new knowledge as soon as possible. Knowledge is Power." Harry swallowed and decided to confess to Ginny.

"Flame, you know how I'm never studying; always playing chess and Quidditch with certain people and letting others do all of the research for me?"

"Yes," she replied simply.

"It's not because I want to. I have always loved reading and learning, but it was forbidden at my relatives as the cousin is not smart enough to add up to 40," he snorted, "when I came to Hogwarts I thought it would be different, but most of all I wanted people to like me, I wanted friends. I met some people as you know and they were lazy, but jealous. They couldn't deal with having friends smarter than them, so I held my knowledge back. Then I met another, and she was smart. I was ecstatic, I thought I could have a friend that valued others to have knowledge as well, but I was wrong. She wanted people to feel smarter than, to nag to do their homework because it made her feel good, so once again I pushed my love of learning away from me. Worse, was she always had to be the best in class, to perform spells faster than everyone else, so I held back there as well. I think it helped me suppress my magic even further than it did with my relatives. So please, Flame, you've seen how they treat me, please don't do the same thing." She nodded.

"Don't hide your true self because your friends will be jealous, it means that they aren't real friends."

"Now after that heart-warming conversation, perhaps we can get to eating lunch so we can discuss your schedule," said Eagle irritably, but Lenta was smiling slightly.

"Don't mind her, she's irritated because people have treated you like that Griffin. No, you have taken a good step in the right direction."

"Now we eat," said Eagle, her voice a little softer, "and discuss your schedule. You will be taking extra lessons in your skills. Although Lenta and I might not possess what you have, we know how to train it- though the Parseltongue may be a little more difficult. That means you will each have the standard lessons; charms, transfiguration, offensive magic, defensive magic, healing and the like, but you get an extra one in each of your strengths. You will also be asked to help your partner in their spare time if they are having trouble in their weaker magic. We're also going to have different lessons spread through your training on different things, such as creating portkeys, apparition, warding- which generally counts as a branch of both offensive and defensive magic. Animagus training will occur unless you get something ridiculous like a flobberworm- though that could come in handy at some stage. Plus, you will get skills training; so mage sight for both of you, seer and empath for Flame and metamorph and parseltongue if possible for Griffin. Physical training will most definitely take place with weapons as well when you are ready for them- that is _my _decision, not yours- magical theory will be taught as it does help, wandless magic as well, potions are always useful. You'll get strategy and stealth training and there will be lessons that you will definitely not enjoy- such as how to kill."

"Kill?" asked Harry, horrified.

"Kill, Griffin, not murder. The Death Eaters murder for fun and sport; if they are levelling deadly curses at you, Field Operatives are expected to do the same, and have permission as well," said Lenta firmly.

"Griffin, you are not murdering if you kill an active Death Eater- rather, you are saving the lives of many by not allowing them to keep murdering. They are all murderers, it's how they earn the Dark Mark." Harry felt sick at the idea, but aquietised for now.

"You will learn to work together more seamlessly that you could imagine, both on and off the field. You will very quickly become able to finish each other's sentences with your backs turned and know what your partner is going to do many moves ahead. On the field, you are not Griffin and Flame, you are Griffinflame; one Operative. There will be more lessons, but we will get to them later. If you want to study other things, for example, Arithmancy, you may do so in your spare time. I also believe that we managed to obtain your family books for you to skim though, discover what is rightfully yours, etcetera. And no; I do not know who you are; Silver does that for us, though parseltongue does give us a clue. Anything else you feel you ought to learn?" Harry gulped and saw his nerves reflected on Ginny's face.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

"Smoke balls on 3! 2! 1! Now!"

"Smoke balls deployed and functioning, targets moving blindly now."

"Offensive spells on 3, then apparate to north-west peak! 3, 2, 1, now!"

"Apparition successful, awaiting your arrival."

"Directives, please."

"You've got it."

"Urgh, Flame, those guys use some nasty spells," said Harry as he apparated to her.

"I suggest wait here for them to bunch together then send down one of the stunner balls, we have a better view from up here."

"Noted."

"They're going to bunch in exactly 10 seconds," said Ginny, using her carefully honed partial seer talent.

"In 10, the stunner balls go down."

"5 seconds to go. 4. 3. 2. 1."

"Launch!"

"Griffin?"

"Flame?"

"They worked. We won!"

"Brilliant! I love those spheres. Now, I would say that we apparate back, but no doubt Eagle has another surprise planned for us."

"No doubt."

"Wands out, belongings away, take up defensive stance," said Harry suddenly, before he began to follow his own orders.

"Ambush set for us about to activate, get ready, Griffin."

"Ready. Take stance behind, watch my back, Flame."

"Ready, Griffin, prepared for ambush." Suddenly, there was a loud _CRACK, _and they were surrounded by people in black robes with white masks.

"Prepare for long assault," said Harry before he launched into attack mode.

"Griffin, there are wards up!"

"I see them. Anti-apparition and portkey wards, don't try either modes of transport!"

"Noted!"

"Griffin, south side are retreating."

"Noted, take up west side. East side retreating as well, leaving north for me!"

"Griffin, West side moving forward for close combat."

"Flame, take both West and North, I'm attacking the wards."

"Hurry."

"Taking wards. Ach; that was draining. Leave north now, focus on West."

"Noted."

"North beginning to retreat, focussing on west. What are you carrying?"

"Wand and spare only."

"We're fighting multiple-wands now!"

"Noted! This end in close, they're prepared to face close combat."

"Keep a hold of both wands and hold on. Wards are down, apparition good to go."

"Griffin, I have to initiate close combat in 5 seconds."

"Noted. Apparate to safe house in 15 seconds. All but 2 down on this side, joining you."

"Prepared to apparate."

"NOW!" yelled Harry before he apparated away to the roof of the nearby house they had called 'safe' earlier in the exercise.

"They're confused, taking them down now, both wands! NOW!"

"They're down, Griffin."

"Good, that was fun, now let's go through the drill and give them the portkey back to the holding rooms anyway, even if they aren't real."

"I will never understand how you enjoy those exercises, Griffin," said Ginny exasperatedly as they apparated silently back to the fallen 'Death Eaters' that were really training dummies.

"It's exhilarating," he whined, "not quite as good as Quidditch, but it's up there!"

"Huh, that's why you're pair leader and not me," she said, "and did Eagle mention something about almost being finished training? Might have been Lenta, but I swear they have been hinting at that for the last week," said Ginny as they sat down on the ground, training exercise done.

"I think it was Eagle, if we did well enough in the main exercises that was earlier- I think we did, by the way, and didn't mess this one up even though we'd be exhausted, we'd be finished… but it's Eagle, everything she says has triple meanings. That's why I like working with Lenta."

"Lenta's tougher, though! Eagle acts tough and strict, but Lenta can actually pull it off… during training. I like working with Eagle, we go a little slower, but it's much more enjoyable."

"I prefer the challenge," said Harry distractedly, "oh, look, here they are."

"Yes, we're here, hola, I can hear your excitement," said Lenta.

"That was… acceptable for a long-range attack, you can work well together if you focus," said Eagle, and the pair sighed in relief. If Eagle called something acceptable, it was exceptional. Sort of.

"You died out towards the end just before the second attack," she continued, "but that was expected and you held up well. Good use of your different skills, especially the wandless attack and the ward removals by you, Griffin, and the warnings from you Flame."

"Sί, bien hecho, well done."

"Right, apparate back to the hut and we will meet you there," said Eagle mysteriously. Harry and Ginny looked at each other and shrugged before disappearing silently and re appearing outside the hut.

"Well that was the most mysterious thing she has ever said," said Harry, before he felt a slap.

"It is not, you just don't like her," she said sternly, but her eyes were dancing.

"Ha, you can't fool me with your stern act anymore, Flame, I can see through it all!"

"Fine, fine, _leader _Griffin."

"Hey!"

"You asked for it!"

"Can't wait to get back to Hogwarts just to see everyone's shock at how well we know each other and how much we've improved over the summer! Though meeting Lemon Drop and the rest of the Order of the Chicken might not be as highly anticipated. By the way, when was I going to be rescued from the Dursleys?"

You'll be at the Burrow in a week."

"Brilliant! Can't say I'm looking forward to being around the rest of your family, but it's nice being around you and the Burrow beats Privet Drive any day."

"Yeah, but mum won't know what to do, you don't need feeding!"

"True," said Harry. The four years of compressed time had given Harry a complete new look. He had grown a lot, the stunted growth from malnourishment being completely reversed- and Potters are tall. He was still thin, but his muscles were more compact giving him the look of a dancer- tightly coiled, wound like a spring and ready to leap at a moments' notice. His glasses had been broken beyond repair in the first week, leaving Harry to learn to brew an eyesight-restorative potion half-blind. That had exploded a few times. His hair was slightly longer, though that and the red streaks in it were due to his developing metamorphmagus talent. He stood straighter, his shoulders back and looked proud of himself which was a look that had been lacking before. His scar had begun to fade as Mere had discovered how to break the Dark Magic leaving Harry with a lot more magic at his command, especially after he released the previously suppressed magic. The magic reserves in his core he now had were enormous as it had slowly been building under suppression- leaving he and Ginny to discover Dumbledore's twinkling-eye trick- it was just the amount of magic he possessed.

"True," he continued, "and I think we might have a small problem explaining how we both look so much better after a day- or two months, depending who you're explaining to."

"Glad you think I look better," she teased, "anyway, have you forgotten what Lenta said about the charms to place on the people that saw us yesterday?"

"True… oh, we need to remember to sneak into the Underage Magic department or whatever it's called and get rid of our tracking charms."

"We don't even know if we're finished today!"

"Er… good point, that," he said.

"That it is," came Eagle's voice, "but not a necessary one."

"Congratulations, you two," said Lenta, holding out a card for each of them, "You are finished your training to become Unspeakables. Well, you will still receive a lot more training over the years, but it's all you need for now and you are free to join your team on missions," he finished. Harry grinned and looked down at the card he was holding.

TEAM 3 MEMBER

GRIFFIN

LEADER GRIFFINFLAME

FIELD OPERATIVE

DEPARTMENT OF MYSTERIES

It said nothing else, and was coloured plainly. Even without the words, it was obvious which Department it belonged to, due to the lack of information. It was known, however, to be impossible for anyone other than the holder to wear it. On the back there was a little more information.

TEAM WARDER

WANDLESS MAGIC

TEAM HEALER

OFFENSIVE

Harry almost laughed at the 'Team Healer' part. In the whole of Team 3, he was the only one to not have Healing magic as his weakness, so as a joke they had put that on his card. They were tempted to announced on Ginny's that it would be unwise to let her near your injuries, but finally Eagle had said it would be unprofessional. Team Warder was based on his mage sight and his skill with working them- once again he left his team behind there as only he and Ginny had the sight, his was stronger and wards were both offensive and defensive magic- it was rare for someone to be equally skilled in both. As Silver had said when they arrived, age didn't matter- only experience and he had the experience with wards. Wandless magic was self-explanatory, in his opinion, and 'Offensive' was written on his as 'Defensive' was on Ginny's as every pair had to have one of each- Ginny had stronger Defensive magic than Offensive and preferred to watch another's back than to go out on the front.

"Yes, you're done training. We're going to give you a break, actually, as Shadowflight have gone on holidays for a few months," Eagle sniffed her obvious disapproval, "so make sure you keep up your exercises and get all of your work and gadgets set up when you get to Hogwarts. We'll send you a message when you're needed back here and don't forget to use the time-turners to avoid suspicion."

"Bien hecho, Griffinflame, you have done well. Remember to keep practicing Occlumency and lock up your memories every day or when you learn something important so it can't be obliviated from you. We're ready to cancel the time compression. Are all your gadgets away?"

"Yes."

"Yup."

"Then, let's go!"

"Wait a moment, Lenta; you're always too eager here. Griffinflame, outside of time compression, four hours have gone past. That makes it 10am out there and in here you've just finished a full day. We've got potions to prepare you, here. Taste alright, too. Then you can go and enjoy your ay doing whatever you planned."

"I do always forget the potion. Griffin, Flame, I can no longer address you as _novato,_ rookie. I shall address you now, as Operatives as that is what you are," he said formally, then added; "agentes!" Harry kept himself from rolling his eyes; instead he sent a wandless message spell to Ginny.

'_Never going to get used to him saying every title in Spanish, I swear he does it to annoy us. We need to practice using real names. I've spent 4 years calling you only "Flame" and it would be dangerous to slip up on the outside. So… Ginny, for now.'_ He saw her nod when it hit and knew she got the message. They drank the potion and said goodbye- as well as given permission to portkey right out, Silver was dealing with the underage magic problem. Harry quickly sent another message spell.

'_I've got some work to do at Gringotts, want to come to Diagon Alley? If yes, change robe colour to something more casual. You can always time-turn if worried about parents noticing absence.' _Harry morphed into a slightly different face, before he decided to just leave his hood up and morphed it back- and was overjoyed when he saw Ginny's robes turn a light green.

"Portus," he shot the spell at a small piece of wood on the ground, focusing on the apparition point in the alley.

"Ready?" she nodded. Then let's go!" They touched it and the world was suddenly spinning around them… until their feet slammed into the ground. They stood blinking in the sunlight for a few seconds before they realised they needed to move and started to walk. It took a few minutes for Harry's eyes to adjust. Even with his mage sight almost completely shut off, the amount of magic in the area was phenomenal. He needed to be around places like it more often to get used to the lights. Ginny appeared to be having similar problems.

"It's really bright, isn't it?" he whispered. The nod was all the confirmation he needed. The pair of them strolled casually towards the bright white building at the end of the alley and entered, barely acknowledging the poem on the double doors. Harry walked up to a free goblin along the many counters.

"I would like to visit my family vault," he said when the goblin looked up.

"Name," he sneered.

"Potter. The goblin nodded.

"I will have someone take you down to the vault," he said, "Sharptooth!" Another goblin, Harry presumed it was Sharptooth, came walking towards them.

"Family vault," said the first goblin, "you know the deal. Potter." Sharptooth nodded.

"Follow me."

"F-Ginny, are you coming?" asked Harry when she showed signs of staying and waiting for him. "You're welcome to come, you know, I might need some help, anyway." Ginny nodded.

"Nice save," she muttered when she was close enough. They got in the cart and it began flying down the tracks much faster than Harry remembered, to his delight. All too soon, the cart began to slow.

"Family Vault 7," announced Sharptooth, smirking in what could almost be interpreted as evil. "Place your hand on the vault door. If you are who you claim to be, the door will open." Harry finally realised why they hadn't challenged his identity at all. The vaults could be nasty if you tried anything. Harry stepped up and placed his right hand in the niche on the door. It opened slowly, with green smoke billowing out in the wake of the door. At least it didn't melt away like others.

"Coming in Fl-Ginny?"

"Are you sure, Gri-Harry?"

"I'm sure."

"Move over, then!" Harry laughed and stepped inside the vault- and gasped. It was _huge. _His trust vault- which he had believed was the only one he had until time compression- was dwarfed in money alone by this vault. However the family vault was _not _mainly gold. There were thousands of family heirlooms arranged throughout the cavern. It was simply incredible. Harry made his way towards the pedestal in the centre of the vault and looked at it. There was a small ring- the family Head ring- and a letter. He reached out for it and shook it open.

_To our Dearest Harry_

_(Sorry if you don't like being addressed like that!) If you are reading this letter that means Voldemort has found us and we have not survived. If this is the case, hopefully it is your 15th birthday and you are standing there reading this with Padfoot and possibly Moony. If not, Dumbledore has a lot to answer for (unless Padfoot just forgot that you were to access the vault on our 15th birthday.) Anyway, Happy Birthday if it is. If you're anything like your father and you did grow up with or friends, you will probably skip this next part. _

_A family's first male heir is always in line to receive the Head and Lordship of the family line once they turn 17. If the family has no heir, or the heir is too young when the current Head dies, it is passed onto the closest of the line, assuming they are magical, of course. However, you are the last of the line. There are no other Potters which means that you are free to become emancipated and take the Head and Lordship of the family on your 15th birthday. Of course it becomes slightly more complex for you as you are also last of the line of the Evans family, assuming that your older cousin Dudley possesses no magical talents. (or he does, but not enough to attend Hogwarts.)_

_The Head of House ring on the pedestal is rather special, though it is actually the same as all other Head rings… but that's beside the point. The point is, once you put it on, you automatically assume you position as long as the ring accepts you. The ring acts as a portkey to all Potter and Evans property unless you buy more, in which case you will need to add it to the portkey destinations. It cannot be removed from your finger until you die, when it places itself back on this pedestal. It is invisible to everyone unless you want them to see it, and it cannot be felt by others, either. Yes, you can take others on the portkey- one at a time, but it requires you to let them see the ring. The other thing you can do is make it visible only to certain people. Very useful if you want to make a statement to one person but leave the next oblivious. Finally, it vibrates if it comes into contact with a potion. Brilliant, no one can prank you by potions again, as if a potion is… say, on your spoon, and you're holding the spoon, the ring will still vibrate. The only way someone could potion you without your knowledge is if they feed it to you directly. Once again to do with potions, once the ring comes into contact with a certain one, it recognises it. If the ring meets the same potion again it automatically alerts you to the potion in your mind. Potters over the centuries have introduced that ring to some nasty potions, I can tell you. Plus everything that you would brew or drink in a normal lifetime… one Potter head met every different type of love potion- believe me, I checked! So, that's all I have to say about the ring. Hopefully all of the Potter deeds (and the Evans, we combined the family vaults- Evans on the left, Potter on the right) are in the cabinets up the back and you can look at them whenever you feel like it. If you grew up with the Dursleys, I would suggest sooner rather than later- just after you throttle Albus and whack Padfoot and Mooney over the head. _

_Alright, James, enough telling him to be violent. Harry, don't get too caught up in this work. Besides, if you make a mistake, you are the only Potter/Evans around to notice, so it doesn't matter. Go live your life and have some fun, study hard in school. If it's not too late for you to add elective courses at school, I would suggest Arithmancy and Ancient Runes; they're both brilliant subjects._

_Sorry, Harry, I'll keep the quill away from her. She likes work! Nah, go prank some people… OUCH! Sorry, I didn't mean it, Harry; I actually meant follow your mother's footsteps into academic brilliance and never prank people. (Unless they deserve it like Snivelous) OW! Didn't mean that one, either. Urgh. Okay, be a model student, behave and get payback on Wormtail! Ow, your mother keeps hitting me, seems to have a problem with whatever I'm writing. Can't see what's so bad, but never mind. Huh. One last thing, if you are reading this letter it means that the Potter and Evans rings have combined and you can show whichever you choose. You can also change your name to be Harry James Evans-Potter if you like, we don't mind at all. Some people seem to appreciate more names; however the Evans line doesn't hold much sway. Have fun, we love you._

_From_

_James and Lily Potter_

_PS- Lily, I could have written your name for you, you really didn't need to do that._

_It was for Harry, you twat!_

Harry couldn't help his laughter when he read the last two lines, even though he was sure that they were staged. He put the letter in his pocket and stared at the ring. All he had to do was put it on and he would become emancipated. Almost in a dream-like state, he reached forward and picked it up before sliding it onto his fingers. For a few seconds there was a hectic rush of unfamiliar magic that put him on edge before it calmed and began to feel welcoming. The magic of the rings had accepted him and he had taken up his position. He grabbed the box of property deeds and placed them in his Unspeakable trunk before grabbing a bag of money and walking to the door.

"Did you see anything that you want, Ginny, or do you just want to go now?"

"Huh? Oh, no, let's go, I can't take any of this from you."

"If you're sure, I really don't mind," he said before turning and walking out the door. __

A quick cart-trip later, they were back in the midday sunlight.

"I'm pretty much done here, but do you want to grab an ice cream from Florean's now, or look around or just go home?"

"I don't have money, though," said Ginny nervously.

"Doesn't matter, I can pay," said Harry before he steered her over to the ice cream parlour.

By midday, Harry was back at the Dursleys. Still unsure about whether or not he was able to perform magic outside of school yet, he got himself ready to look over the properties that he owned. There wasn't all that many of them, but it was still a great shock to discover that he owned _any. _The Potters had 2 properties- the manor and a cottage in France, Godric's Hollow had been lent to them by (apparently) Dumbledore. The Evans had one more. They a manor as well, though smaller than the Potter's it was worth more being older. They also had a cottage in Derbyshire and a beach house in Australia. The deeds were quite boring in Harry's opinion, but the Evan's ones were a mystery as his mother had apparently been Muggleborn- so why did they had wizarding homes? They had been upgraded too recently to claim that the line had been squibs for long enough to forget about magic, but the upgrades had definitely happened before his mother had been born. Her Grandparents? That was what was being suggested, but it would mean that everything he knew about his mother's side of the family was wrong. He was confused. He really wanted to go and check all of the properties out, but he could tell that the current guard contained Moody, and a sudden disappearance with him watching the house was a bad idea, so he contented himself by looking at the wards- which was a bad idea as well, because they made him furious.

"Blood wards! What blood wards? Lemon Drop is really going to pay for this one! That ward wouldn't keep out a first-year! There are no blood wards! Huh, even if there was, Voldy has my blood! What on earth was that man thinking? Mail-redirect ward? You've got to be kidding, that's where the Gringotts statements are going. Wizard-repelling? He's repelling me! No wonder I always feel like I have to leave, and he lectures me when I do! What is this? A way to subtly torture Harry Potter without it being traced back to him? We'll see about this, Underage magic laws or no." Harry knew that using his wand would be even riskier than not especially considering that he hadn't got confirmation of the underage magic waiver- but no one at the Ministry would believe that a soon-to-be 6th year student could pull down the wards set by _Albus Dumbledore-_ and if they did, he would have to explain why he put up those particular wards. This was good.

Harry stretched out with his senses to grab hold of the wards. Some of them were fine and he was happy to leave them there- others were not. He ripped down the wizard-repelling charm along with the proximity-alert. Those were doing him no good at all. The mail-redirect ward wasn't such a bad idea- he just modified it a little. It now only redirected mail with offensive curses or jinxes, howlers and other dangerous mail. Dumbledore could deal with them. He put up a ward against dark marks and one to keep people out with malicious intent. Of course, he had to make exceptions for the Dursleys as he was sure they were considered as 'malicious intent.' Dealing with wards set up by Dumbledore was draining, though- as much as he hated to admit it, the man was powerful.

A week later, Harry was yet to leave the wards he had modified, and was beginning to feel extremely claustrophobic and was seriously looking forward to getting to the Burrow even if it would put him under even more scrutiny as Ron and Molly Weasley would be there along with visits from Dumbledore and the other Order members. He had gotten an owl the day before telling him that he would be moving- but the clues were very subtle and it was a direct hint to Harry to watch what he wrote by owl. As if he needed the reminder. His Unspeakable things were well and truly hidden and he was sure that the Order wouldn't find it. It left only his 'old' school things visible so he was free from suspicion.

There was a crash downstairs and Harry rolled his eyes. He stretched out his magic senses and noted Tonks, Kingsley and Mad-Eye were all there. _Great, _he thought, _they must really think me useless if they send all of the Order's aurors to pick me up to get to the Burrow._ He then made sure that all of the locks on his door were done, as that would be a dead give-away; mentally thanking the confirmation of his underage magic waiver that had come his second day back via Silver. He sat up and grabbed his wand, pointing at the door. It would do him no good if Mad-Eye- Hip-Flask- saw him complacent. His 'constant vigilance' would not accept the excuse of 'I sensed your magic and could tell that it was you-' not that he was planning on telling _anyone _that. The lock clicked and the door swung open.

"Show yourself," he said in a harsh voice. He could have sworn that Hip-Flask smirked.

"Constant Vigilance, boy! It was you along with Snape, Dumbledore and McGonagall that found me that night in my trunk, missing my leg and eye," and Harry nodded at him.

"Wotcher, Harry, I'm the one that always knocks over the trolls leg at Headquarters, and the girls like it when I do the duck and pig noses for dinner entertainment." She got the nod.

"I charmed Ms. Edgecombe's memory the night that Dumbledore fled," said Kingsley. Nod.

"What was the first thing I ever said to you?"

"Not to call you 'Professor' as you never got around to doing much teaching," said Harry and the three aurors were satisfied.

"Dumbledore has modified the wards around the property for the night, Harry. We need to go outside and wait for the signal to go. You can't apparate yet, so you'll be going side-along with me, and Moody is going to take your belongings... though Kingsley is volunteering to go with the broom," smirked Tonks. Kingsley nodded gravely and Harry fought to shove the amusement he was feeling behind his occlumency shields.

"Please be careful with it, Kingsley, it is extremely important to me," he said seriously, but was mentally laughing hysterically at the situation. Tonks looked shocked, and he winked at her. The outburst of laughter that followed made it even harder for Harry to keep his shields up. When Tonks managed to control herself, they went outside to wait for the signal, Harry holding on to Tonks- wishing that he could yell out that he could apparate by himself. It was much more comfortable that way, but it would raise to many questions and the information would surely reach Dumbledore. Memory modification was far too risky. Suddenly, red sparks shot high into the air.

That's the first signal," Tonks said in his ear, "we will be ready to go in a minute." Harry nodded. Now that the amusement of the situation was gone, anger was returning. Did they know that there had never been anti-apparition wards, or were they all victims of Dumbledore's lies? He hoped that they had been lied to; otherwise they had each earned a new enemy. He didn't like lies or secrets though he knew that the latter was necessary. Finally green sparks exploded above them and Harry felt himself sucked into the horrible sensation that was side-along apparition.

"Are you alright?" Tonks asked him as soon as they arrived; "the sensation takes some getting used to, and most people don't react well to their first side-along apparition..." she trailed off when she saw the amusement in Harry's eyes. It was fake, but she didn't need to know that.

"I'm fine," he said, "quite a pleasant way to travel, really, muck better than Floo or the Knight Bus," and finally the amusement was real as he saw Tonks' dumbstruck look.

"I take it you won't be needing the stomach-soother then," she said weakly, and Harry began to laugh. They walked towards the crooked building that was the Burrow, and Harry had another moment of amusement when Tonks handed the potion to Kingsley.

"You can use that another time," she had said, "I didn't need it."

"Were you too late?" Harry almost snorted then.

"No," said Tonks, sounding confused, "he really didn't need it. I asked him if he was alright, and said that the sensation took some getting used to- and he _laughed,_ and said that it was _quite a pleasant way to travel!_" Kingsley's look caused Harry to burst out laughing again.

"You were comfortable with _side-along_ apparition," he said faintly as the approached the doorway, "Mad-Eye, have you ever heard of someone else like that?"

"Aye, I have," he said gruffly, "and he was a natural when he began apparition training." Harry didn't even have to fight to keep the 'happy/excited/nervous' look on his face. It seemed to come naturally considering he was about to visit the Burrow.

"Harry! How wonderful to see you, dear," called a voice when they reached the front door.

"Mrs. Weasley," he said, "thanks for letting me stay for the rest of the summer."

"Oh, it's no trouble at all, dear," she said and Harry mentally rolled his eyes.

"Ron, Ginny, Fred, George," he greeted them, "Where's Mr. Weasley?"

"Oh, he's gone into the office for the day," said Ginny, giving him a significant look. Harry sent a wandless message at her. _From your look, we need to talk later, correct?_ She nodded and Harry wished that her wandless skills were good enough to send a message back- but she didn't have the power for something so advanced.

"Thanks," he said instead.

"Hey mate, come dump your stuff in my room, then we can go and have a game of Quidditch," he sounded ecstatic at the word 'Quidditch,' and Harry would be lying if he said he wasn't excited. It took a lot of effort to remind himself that he was one of the people who had betrayed his trust.

"Thanks, mate, sounds great," he said and followed him up the stairs.

"Bill and Charlie are here as well, so we've got one team."

"Bill and Charlie are here"

"Yeah, there's supposed to be a big meeting or something going on tonight, so most of the Order's here." Harry nodded and stayed in thought all the way up to the attic-turned-bedroom and dumped his stuff, minus the broom that Kingsley had assured him was 'still in perfect condition after the apparition.' They spent the evening in the air; there was no need for a seeker, so Harry, Ginny and Charlie were against Ron, Fred and George- Charlie and Ron were in keeper with the others all playing chaser for their teams as the Weasleys seemed to lack bludgers- Molly's influence, no doubt. It was thoroughly amusing for Harry and Ginny when the others noticed how well the pair of them worked together, giving the twins a run for their money in chasing skill. That left the deciding up to the keepers. Charlie had incredible eyesight, being a seeker, but Ron had the build for a keeper even though he lacked the confidence and skill. The end score was close- Harry's team was leading by a goal when Molly announced dinner.

"Don't see why you all have to play that violent sport," she complained as they walked in, "it's bad enough that there's a war going on- you don't have to all go and injure yourselves for fun!"

"What's so amusing?" Ginny breathed in his ear, and Harry was reminded that she was an empath.

_Is it just me, or have we found another Mere? 'Quidditch is dangerous, it's bad enough that you all go and injure yourselves on the field, but do you really have to do it for fun as well?' _he send the message spell and was rewarded with a small snort from Ginny. 

"Dinner's on the table, dears," Molly interrupted his thoughts. The stampede was incredible- Harry swore he would never get used to the appetite of the Weasley boys. Halfway through the dinner of roast beef and gravy, an exhausted Arthur Weasley walked in to the kitchen.

"How was work today, dear?" asked Molly.

"Big raid today," he said wearily, "and the inhabitants put up a fight."

"Where was the raid?"

"Malfoy Manor," and Harry barely stopped himself from chocking on his meal. _Team 5 was supposed to raid Malfoy Manor today_ he messaged to Ginny and her eyebrows twitched before she put the mask back on.

"Are you alright, dear?" asked Molly, who had noticed a slight reaction.

"I'm- I'm fine," he lied, "just a little surprised." He did see a small amount of realisation cross Arthur's face, but it was hidden quickly.

"Harry, may I speak to you after dinner, please," said Arthur and Harry knew what the discussion would be about.

"Of course, Mr. Weasley," he said quietly and dinner resumed at its normal pace- far too quick and furious to be normal, and several involuntarily chocking on their food. When it was finished, Ginny stayed to help Molly with the washing up and Harry followed Arthur outside. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the wards that Arthur was putting up around them.

"You were far too surprised when I said the raid location," Arthur began and Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Team 5," he said softly and stopped the older man in his tracks. He looked shocked.

"I suspected that you were in contact..."

"Not in contact," he said and Arthur looked even more surprised.

"You've met Silver, then?"

"Yeah, a week ago. Training's finished, as well. Was a bit of a shock, but their views of Lemon Drop were consistent with my own before they visited," he admitted. "So you're in team 5, do you know anyone else?"

"I shouldn't say," Arthur began, "but I know the identity of Silver and Bunny... and I'm Skin. You're obviously Griffin from your story."

"Yeah, I am, though that was a little early for you to know that. Griffin knows who I am, and I know her. I also recognised Meadow's voice and she mine," he admitted, "So between the two of us, Silver, Meadow, Griffin, Flame, Skin and Bunny are all known. I thought you were a Dumbledore supporter?"

"No, both Charlie and Myself are not pro-Dumbledore, though I probably shouldn't have mentioned his name. There are at least 2 anti-Dumbledore Weasleys, anyway."

"3," Harry corrected, "you should at least know if your children are anti-lemon-drop... your youngest is Flame."

"Ginny," he said, "Incredible- I suppose that means I can't keep treating her as my baby, then. Team 5 has heard about the pair of you, by the way, Lenta and Eagle came around the Department bragging about you."

"Brilliant, he sighed, "just brilliant. Bet they did that on purpose, my... unique... gifts made it quite obvious to them who I really am."

"Parseltongue," agreed Arthur. "So, you and Ginny were communicating?"

"I'm quite good with my wandless magic, and Ginny's an empath," said Harry, "we communicate quite well silently- I realise something, Ginny feels the emotion and sends a questioning glance, I send a wandless message- and she can't answer! I usually know what she's going to say before she does, though; sometimes I forget about her empathy though."

"Wish my partner and I could do even that," said Arthur wistfully, "but neither of us are skilled enough in wandless magic, and neither of us are empathic either!"

"Oh well. I suppose I don't need to remind you to not let this information slip- though I think Ginny and I are discussing it later. I think she guessed something today, should we go inside now?"

"Hmm? Right, yeah..."

"Wait- Arthur, no offence, but I never really expected you to be a member of the department..."

"Masks are wonderful things, Harry," he said as he walked back inside.

"That explains Tonks," he muttered before following the older man inside, "and Charlie's definitely an Operative as well." _He is. You mutter too loudly. But I only heard the part where you mentioned Charlie, not whatever you said before._ Arthur's message spell hit him and Harry noticed the older man's wand being put discreetly away. _Sorry._ The wandless message spell took the older man by surprise and Harry smirked. _Ginny, meet me in your room now,_ he sent another message spell before he walked up towards the room he had mentioned and let himself in before erecting privacy and proximity wards.

"Hey Ginny," he said when she walked in, "I learnt quite a lot just then."

"Dad's in the Department, Isn't he?" Harry nodded, "I thought he was, I just needed confirmation. Is that all?"

"No, I suspected him earlier as well. No, he is Skin, but that's not what I was going to say. Charlie's in the Department as well."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Your dad mentioned that he knew the identities of Silver and Bunny before he accidentally let slip that Charlie's in the DOM. I don't think Charlie's old enough to be Silver, though..."

"Bunny," chocked Ginny, "that's ridiculous- He's a dragon trainer! Or maybe that's why he got the name... how ironic!"

"Isn't it? So we know that Meadow's Tonks,"

"Is she really?" a guilty look spread over Harry's face.

"You didn't know that, did you?" Ginny shook her head. "Oops... just forget I said that. Anyway, I'm Griffin, you're Flame, your dad is Skin and Charlie is Bunny. I have a suspicion about Silver as well."

"Really? Who?"

"Ginny, how many people are older than Dumbledore?"

"I don't know... lots?"

"No! Dumbledore is incredibly old, even for a wizard! The Flamels, though..." Ginny gasped.

"You don't think- _Nicholas Flamel?_" Harry nodded.

"I'm almost certain of it," he admitted, "I had a suspicion ever since I met him, I just needed to research the people that have lived to Dumbledore's age after I checked the normal life-expectancy of a wizard, and I found that the Flamels were still alive..." Harry had told Ginny about all of his adventures at Hogwarts during their training.

"Just think... We've met _the _Nicholas Flamel, and we can't tell Hermione..."

"Speaking of Hermione, I don't think she can be trusted. She respects authority- and Dumbledore in particular- far too much," said Harry sadly. Ginny nodded.

"I'll check her emotions when she gets here, but I doubt they will tell me much other than if she is willingly doing what she is or if she has regrets- Harry! Hide, mum's going to come into my room!" Harry nodded.

"no-see," he said quickly, activating his robes and quickly moved to stand in the corner. Molly wouldn't notice him unless he began jumping up and down- or made a sound. A few seconds later, he felt the proximity wards trip and he quickly took down the silencing wards along with them. Seconds later, the door opened and the Weasley matriarch walked in.

"Ginny, dear, have you seen Harry? Ron can't find him."

"No, mum, but wasn't he planning on talking to dad?"

"Of course, I forgot about that," she said, sounding flustered, "well, of you see him, remember to tell him that Ron's looking for him."

"I will," she said softly.

"Oh, and Ginny, we need to get your father to look at your room, the light is behaving strangely in the corner... it looks like there's some extra magic in here," she said before walking out. Ginny turned to Harry, her face pale.

"I think we can see where my partial mage-sight came from," she whispered, and Harry nodded before he remembered that he was invisible.

"Yeah," his throat was dry, "yeah, you might be right. Well, I'd better go and find Ron... see you in the morning for a run?"

"No, you go alone tomorrow, it'll be too suspicious otherwise. I'll join you the day after." Harry nodded, and blushed after he changed his robes back.

"I never thought of that," he admitted, "but then we all know that strategy isn't my strong point, no matter how much training improved it. See you tomorrow, Flame," he said, before walking out the door to find Ron- who was in his bedroom.

"Hey, Ron, Ginny mentioned that you were looking for me," he said, wondering how being in his room classified as looking.

"Yeah, mate, I was worried! You didn't follow me up here," he said. Harry nodded.

"Yeah, your dad wanted to talk to me, remember?"

"Oh, I forgot about that," he said sheepishly, "so what did he want?"

"Oh, he just told me some things, asked how I was."

"D'you want to play chess, Harry?" and Harry mentally thanked the boy for the subject change. Ron was thick, but even the thickest person could spot something if given enough clues.

"Yeah, sure. I've improved, though," he warned.

"Like you could beat me..."


End file.
